New OLED gadget: BLU VIVO IV

BLU’s flagship phone for 2014, the VIVO IV is an Android smartphone with a 4.99″ Full HD Super AMOLED display, an Octa-Core 1.7Ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage memory and a 13mp camera (plus a 5mp front one). The body is made almost entirely (98%) of glass and aluminum. The phone is very thin at 5.5 mm. The VIVO 4 is now shipping for $299.

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Meizu Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus are high end Android smartphones that sport a small (2-inch) AMOLED display on the back, useful for notifications and selfie images. Both phones also use AMOLED displays on the front – a 5.2″ FHD Super AMOLED for the Pro 7 and a 5.7″ QHD Super AMOLED for the Pro 7 Plus. Other features of the Pro 7 include a dual 12MP sensor camera, a 16Mp selfie camera, Helio X25 chipset (X30 10nm 10-core on the Pro 7 Plus), 4GB of RAM (6GB of the Plus) and 64 GB of storage (128GB on the Plus). Both phones will start shipping in early August 2017. The Pro 7 will cost $430 while the Pro 7 Plus will cost $530.

DSCC expects the OLED market to rapidly grow in the near future, as AMOLED production capacity will increase at a CAGR of 41% from 2016 (5.3 million square meters) to 2021 (29.4 million square meters). OLED revenues will reach $21 billion in 2017 (a rise of 46% compared to 2016) and will reach $46 billion in 2021. Smartphones are still the largest OLED application by far – with a 86% market share (revenues) in 2017 and 81% in 2021. The second largest application by revenues are OLED TVs, and other applications follow with a small market share – but one that will increase as supply looses in the future. If we look at shipments, then smartphones acount for 94% of OLED shipments, and the 2nd and 3rd applications are VR headsets and smart watches. OLED TV shipments will reach 6.5 million in 2021 (rising at a CAGR of 49% from 2016 to 2021). Read more about DSCC: OLED revenues to reach $21 billion in 2017, will rise to $46 billion in 2021

BMW has been developing OLED automotive lighting for many years, and in 2015 BMW has announced now that they are starting to produce the M4 GTS, with its OSRAM-made OLED taillights in very limited quantities . BMW is yet to release a serial car with OLED lighting. The company’s latest concept car, the Concept 8 Series, does use OLED taillights as can be seen in the photo above, though. The new car has lot’s of new design ideas – and BMW aims to include about 80% of these when the car enters the production stage. Read more about BMW's latest concept car uses OLED taillights

UBI Research estimates that the AR and VR market will grow to 96.4 million units and $58.7 billion in device sales by 2021. In 2017, 17 million units will ship generating $3.9 billion in revenues. From 2017 to 2021 the market will grow with a CARG of 54%. According to UBI, the VR and AR market was split almost 50% between OLED and other technology displays, with 2.6 million OLEDs shipped in 2017. Most next generation VR headsets will use OLED displays, however, and by 2021 OLEDs will occupy 80% of the market. Read more about UBI sees fast growth ahead for VR and AR OLED displays

According to the Korea Herald, Samsung decided to “play it safe” with its next year’s flagship phone and it will adopt the same basic design as in its current Galaxy S8 . The 2018 Galaxy S9 will use a 5.8″ Infinity curved Super AMOLED display (and the S9+ will use a 6.2″ display as used in the S8+). It is likely that even if this report is true, Samsung Display will use an enhanced display. Even though the display used in the GS8 was “the best mobile display ever” according to DisplayMate – there is still room for improvement, for example higher resolution (good for VR), better efficiency or a larger color gamut. Read more about Samsung's 2018 Galaxy S9 will use the same display size as the S8

In December 2016 Lenovo demonstrated two foldable device prototypes . One of these devices is the CPlus, a smartphone that can be turned into a smartwatch. A few days ago Lenovo demonstrated the CPlus again, saying that such devices could be on the market within 2-3 years. The CPlus device demonstrated now is similar to the the original one shown in 2016 – but the display size has been slightly increased (to 4.35″ from 4.26″). CPlus runs on a customized Android version, includes an embedded SIM card and has a camera that can be motion triggered so it can be used in the wearable mode. Read more about Lenovo says its foldable wrist device could ship within 2-3 years

Researchers from Korea’s National University developed a new process based on high-pressure gas sprays that can be used to rapidly transfer OLED layers very quickly – which could reduce the manufacturing time of OLED panels by 90%. The new process uses a new air jet technology that sprays desquamating gas such as nitrogen, argon and air at high pressures. The gas is sprayed at a speed of 300 m/s between the OLED and a substrate – which reduces the binding power of the OLED from the substrate, and increases the binding energy of the organic layers being transferred. This can be used to quickly transfer thin films without damage them. Read more about Korean researchers develop a new way to quickly transfer thin OLED films during the manufacturing process

Next week Kyushu University (in Fukuoka, Japan) will be hosting the 2nd International TADF Workshop . The event aims to share the recent advances and future direction of TADF science and technologies. The OLED-Info team will attend this exciting workshop. The focus will be on academia oriented lectures, but the event will also include talks from the Dow Chemical Company, Japan Display, BOE Technology Group, Wisechip and TADF developer Kyulux who’s sponsoring the event . The workshop will also include a small exhibition and poster sessions. Read more about OLED-Info at the TADF Workshop in Kyushu University next week

AndroidPolice blog claims it has exclusive information regarding Google’s upcoming flagship smartphone, the 2017 Pixel XL. Besides the leaked image you see below, the blog claims that the Pixel XL will use a 6″ flexible OLED display (2:1 aspect ratio) – produced by LG Display. The OLED display will have (according to the leaked image) curved corners – but it will not sport an edge-folded design. Read more about Will LG produce the OLED screen for Google's upcoming 2017 Pixel XL smartphone?

Sumitomo Chemical acquired CDT back in 2007 , and since then the Japanese company has been developing it’s P-OLED (polymer-based OLED) materials and technologies. While initially Sumitomo aimed to produce materials for displays, in recent years it has focused mostly on OLED lighting materials and even panel production . A noted exception was Panasonic’s OLED TV development project which used printing technologies and Sumitomo’s P-OLED materials. But Panasonic terminated this project in 2013. We speculated that JOLED, which is based on Panasonic’s technology (and other technologies as well), uses P-OLED materials in its prototypes, but we were not sure. Read more about Sumitomo Chemical starts to promote P-OLED materials and printers for OLED display production